Across Virginia
The State Fair of Virginia has been cancelled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Thursday that the fair’s organizers were unable to find a way to pull it off safely. Pam Wiley, director of communications for the Virginia Farm Bureau, said staff spent months trying to figure out ways to make the fair work within state health guidelines. Wiley said the last time the fair was cancelled was during World War II. Before that it was during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. More than 245,000 people attended the fair last year.
LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) – Liberty University has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times and one of its reporters, saying the newspaper intentionally misrepresented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Virginia college campus. The complaint filed Wednesday said the Times, reporter Elizabeth Williamson and a photographer said the school suffered a COVID-19 outbreak when it reopened after spring break and that nearly a dozen students were sick with the virus. The school said the facts were just the opposite because they were told there were no known cases of COVID-19 at Liberty. A spokeswoman for the Times didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Governor Northam says his administration is leaving it up to local school boards to decide how many classes are taught in person or on line. The governor says unlike his statewide COVID-related regulations, public education is not an area where one size fits all, but one guideline in particular remains constant. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Port of Virginia plans to replace two diesel-powered, ship-to-shore cranes and several gas-powered container tractors with electric versions using $14 million it will receive from the state.
The money is part of the $93.6 million the state received from a federal settlement with Volkswagen that resolved allegations that the automaker violated the Clean Air Act by equipping thousands of diesel motor vehicles with software designed to cheat on federal emissions test. The Virginian-Pilot reported Friday that the port will use $10 million of the state’s gift and $10.1 million of its own money to cover the costs of the cranes.
“The port is trying to be holistic in its approach,” said John Reinhart, the port’s CEO and executive director, after highlighting other steps the port has taken to reduce emissions, including adding 26 new truck lanes to reduce idling.
The new cranes will be placed at the Norfolk International Terminals. Reinhart said they will reduce by 75,000 gallons the amount of diesel fuel used every year.
The remaining $4 million from the state will go toward five all-electric tractors and charging stations for the Richmond Marine Terminal.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Law enforcement authorities in Virginia Beach say firefighters on Saturday found the body of a woman in a burning dumpster.Police in a statement said officers responded to a report of a dumpster fire around 12:40 p.m. Firefighters discovered the body after they extinguished the fire.
The Virginia Beach Fire Department and the police department’s homicide unit are jointly investigating the case.Authorities did not provide any additional information.
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Another Confederate monument has been targeted for removal in Virginia.
WTOP reports that officials in northern Virginia’s Loudoun County voted this week to return the statue of a Confederate soldier to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The statue is slated for removal on Sept. 7 from the government-owned property in Leesburg.
A new law in Virginia allows local governments to decide the fate of war monuments on their property.
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall, a Democrat, had long argued that the statue was a symbol of systemic racism.
Confederate monuments are coming down throughout the American South in the wake of protests against racism and police brutality. The wave of public sentiment was sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
Many Confederate statues were erected decades after the Civil War, during an era when Southern states were crushing attempts to achieve equality for Black people.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic’s impact on Virginia’s state budget hasn’t been as bad as previously feared.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that Virginia ended fiscal 2020 with a $236.5 million budget shortfall, far less than anticipated. Overall, state revenues were up 2% from the previous fiscal year.
Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne said Virginia’s high concentration of federal employees and contractors as well as workers who can telecommute, have helped soften the financial impact. Virginia is home to the Pentagon and the world’s largest naval base, and the Department of Defense has long been the state’s largest employer.
Virginia no longer has a backlog of untested rape test kits used to collect and test DNA samples from sexual assault victims, and advocates for those victims say it is about time. Attorney General Mark Herring says more than 2600 of these kits were sitting in storage when he took office — never tested — but not any more. Herring says more than 350 of the tests have led to DNA hits, and some may lead to prosecutions. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia has eliminated a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits, becoming only the seventh state in the country to do so, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Wednesday.
Herring said the project to test rape kits — some decades old — began in 2015. Since then, 2,665 rape kits have been tested, 851 new DNA profiles have been uploaded into a national DNA database and 354 “hits” have been sent to law enforcement agencies for further investigation.
Rape kits are used to collect DNA and other physical evidence from rape victims.
“Eliminating this backlog means that a wrong has been righted, that justice is closer for more survivors and that Virginia is a safer place,” Herring said during a news conference.
Herring said when he first took office six years ago, he was shocked to learn the state had a backlog of nearly 3,000 untested rape kits.
Along with eliminating the backlog, the state Department of Forensic Science developed an electronic tracking system so victims and law enforcement agencies are able to check the status and location of rape kits.
Debbie Smith, a Williamsburg woman who was raped by a masked intruder in 1989, said that after her perpetrator’s trial, she was shown a storage area filled with untested rape kits. She said she was heartbroken when she looked at all the kits because she knew “that each one of those women were feeling the same feelings I felt before my assailant was identified.”
“These kits can contain powerful DNA evidence that can identify unknown perpetrators, long unsolved cases, prevent rapists from claiming future victims, and it can even exonerate the innocent,” said Smith, the founder of Hope Exists after Rape Trauma, Inc., a nonprofit foundation, to help victims of sexual assault.
The Associated Press does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, but Smith has been a longtime public advocate for rape victims.
The state used two grants totaling $3.4 million to eliminate the backlog. The first grant of $1.4 million was used to test nearly 1,800 kits that had been collected before 2014. The second grant of $2 million was used to test about 900 kits collected been 2014 and 2016.
Governor Northam held a ceremonial bill signing today that will prohibit hand-held cellphone use when the measure takes effect about six months from now. AAA Mid-Atlantic research shows 97% of Americans cite texting or email use while driving as a serious safety concern, but 45% say they have nonetheless read one while behind the wheel in the last month. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Lexington City Council voted – after a four hour meeting yesterday – to change the name of the city-owned Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery. The meeting was done by Zoom because of social distancing, but that didn’t limit the amount of response. “We got both sides,” Vice Mayor Marilyn Alexander told WDBJ-7. “But the majority of people were for making a change. We not only received letters, but we had some people to actually speak.” “It’s important for people to know what it really feels like to live here and how we can be more inclusive of all our young people so that they can thrive here,” Alexander explained.